BAY CITY, MI — Once Bay City Commissioners said they could marry this Saturday, Aug. 10, at James Clements Airport, Bay City Western graduate Kevin Holcomb and his bride-to-be, Karen Engle, couldn’t fight their feelings.

They kissed in the presence of the city’s elected leaders, and their eyes glistened with tears when they stepped outside the Pere Marquette Depot, where the commissioners unanimously approved Engle’s special events permit.

“We are absolutely ecstatic. We’re happy it’s over,” said 30-year-old Holcomb, a 2001 Bay City Western High School graduate who took private flying lessons at the airport. Those private flying lessons inspired his bride-to-be to suggest the airport for a wedding venue.

They quickly found themselves tangled in red tape, since the airport is regulated by several government bodies.

She wrangled with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Michigan Department of Transportation and city officials so that they would drop the couple’s overall wedding costs from up to $6,000 to about half that amount.

With the federal and state agency’s giving approval and the city slashing approximately $1,500 in costs, the couple’s dream wedding will happen in five days.

“It’s been worth it,” said the 29-year-old Engle, who proposed her airport idea shortly after Holcomb popped the big question in July 2012. “It’s been a long year, but it’s been worth it. I’m relieved. It’s been something I wanted all year.”

Bay City is charging the couple $942 for airport-related expenses - $487 for use of the airport’s grounds and administration building; $455 for a four-hour security detail of three public safety officers.

The couple already paid half the cost. The city plans to bill them for the balance at the wedding’s conclusion.

"I would have given up," said Krystle Curtiss, Engle's sister, of Prescott. "It's been hard seeing her go through this roller coaster."

After commissioners approved the special events permit as part of the consent agenda, Commissioner Dennis Banaszak, 3rd Ward, offered congratulations.

“Your wedding is now official!” he said.

Commissioner Elizabeth Peters, 2nd Ward, admitted upon the meeting’s conclusion that she almost lost her composure when the couple shed happy, relieved tears.

“It almost made me cry to see her cry,” the commissioner confessed. “That was touching. It really meant a lot to them.”

She had some safety concerns about the venue, too. And then the FAA and MDOT acquiesced.